Aristobulus (brother of Mariamne)

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Aristobulus III (often also Aristobulus III , with full name Aristobulus Jonathan ; * around 53 BC ; † 36 BC in Jericho ), was a Hasmonean prince, the brother of Mariamne and brother-in-law of King Herod the Great . His parents were Alexandra and their cousin Alexandros , his great-grandmother Queen Salome Alexandra . He died in 36 BC In a bathing accident - probably caused by King Herod.

Cheated for royalty

After John Hyrcanus II , the grandfather of Aristobulus Jonathan, was ousted by the Parthians in 40 BC. BC and his deportation to Mesopotamia , the pro-Roman party in Judea was leaderless. The then governor of Galilee and close confidante of Hyrcanus, the Idumean Herod, therefore rushed to Rome to seek support from his friend, the triumvir Marcus Antonius .

As the Jewish historian Flavius ​​Josephus reports, Herod initially requested the royal dignity for his young, about 13-year-old brother-in-law Aristobulus, the grandson of Hyrcanus, because he knew that the Romans “only grant royal dignity to people of royal descent used ". The historian Walter Otto considered this portrayal of Josephus, which absolved Herod from the deposition of the Hasmonean royal family and rather presented the Romans as the initiators of this step, to be untrustworthy and instead assumed that Herod had planned from the outset to demand the rule for himself personally . The fact that Antony agreed to grant Herod the royal dignity was not only due to Herod's personal demeanor, but also because a boy like Aristobulus seemed unsuitable for fighting the Parthians because of his age as a leader of the Jews who were loyal to Rome. Herod, on the other hand, was a bitter enemy of the Parthians and a proven follower of the Romans, as well as a man with outstanding military skills who was entirely dependent on Rome. When Herod showed himself ready to pay Antonius a considerable sum of money for an appointment as king, "as he had done earlier for his appointment as tetrarch", Antonius moved the Roman Senate "with the greatest possible eagerness" to do so To appoint a trusted friend of the Romans as the new King of Judea, for Herod, in the eyes of many Jews only a half-Jew, an "unexpected luck", as Flavius ​​Josephus says.

Ananel

For Alexandra, the ambitious and tradition-conscious mother of Aristobulus and Mariamne, the future wife of Herod, the shameful dismissal of the claims of the Hasmonean dynasty to the Jewish royal throne by the Romans was a bitter disappointment that was basically unacceptable. She immediately tried to secure Aristobulus at least the honorable and influential office of high priest, which Herod could not exercise because of his non-Jewish origin. Herod, however, hesitated to bestow such high honor on the dangerous rival of his young kingship, and instead did so in the fall of 37 BC. Chr. Hanameel the Egyptian , an unknown Jewish priests from Babylon, as the new high priest in Jerusalem. He officially justified his appointment with the fact that, according to tradition, Aristobulus was still too young to exercise the office.

Aristobulus Jonathan: high priest for one year

The boy's mother, Alexandra, did not give up. She was outraged and complained about this neglect of her son to the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra VII. She was supposed to stand up for Aristobulus with her lover, Marcus Antonius. Antonius' friend, Quintus Dellius , who was present at Herod's court at the time , is said to have advised Alexandra to have her beautiful children Aristobulus and Mariamne painted and to send the pictures to Antonius to awaken his sensual pleasure; then the Triumvir would not refuse any request. Alexandra followed this advice, and Antonius is said to have actually been enthusiastic, and not Mariamne, since she was Herod's wife, but asked Aristobulus to come to Egypt for it. However, Herod prevented the boy's departure and justified Antonius with possible unrest among the Jews. Walter Otto rejects this story as implausible, since Alexandra would hardly have committed such a violation of Jewish law, and the historian Christoph Schäfer believes that Antonius wanted to have the dynastically not harmless Aristobulus sent to him to give pressure to a possible later intervention in Judea to have in hand.

Probably in order to avoid further quarrels with his mother-in-law and to give Antonius no more reason to intervene in his kingdom, perhaps also because of the requests of his beloved wife Mariamne, Herod finally deposed Ananel - although this violated Jewish law - and appointed a beginning 36 or early 35 BC BC Aristobulus still to the high priest . With this he brought about an apparent reconciliation with Alexandra. The relationship between the Jewish king and his ambitious and scheming mother-in-law remained tense and characterized by mutual distrust. Shortly afterwards Herod had to prevent Alexandra and Aristobulus from attempting to escape secretly to Cleopatra.

In the same year, Aristobulus had his first official appearance as high priest at the Feast of Tabernacles , performed the religious rites at the altar and was enthusiastically cheered by the people. Herod recognized from this demonstration of popularity that Alexandra would find popular support with her plans against him and that the young high priest should therefore be eliminated as a possible competitor.

Death in a swimming accident

Soon after the Feast of Tabernacles ended, Aristobulus was invited to a meal by his mother in the royal palaces of Jericho . There he died in a swimming accident. Josephus depicts the process as follows: Herod lured him to a remote place, played with him, and then asked him to join some of his servants in one of the swimming pools. There the young man was drowned at dusk under the glow of joking play by Herod's confidants (late 36 or late 35 BC). Aristobulus died after less than a year as a high priest at the age of only about 17 years.

The death of Aristobulus, on which many hopes in the Jewish people had been directed, triggered - as Flavius ​​Josephus reports - "tremendous pain" throughout Judea and was mourned with "persistent lamentation". Herod also publicly hyped up deep pain and played the innocent. He had his dead brother-in-law hold a splendid funeral service. Alexandra had admittedly not be deceived by Herod's behavior and turned to Cleopatra with a murder charge, who had asserted that Herod had to answer to Antonius. The Jewish king defended himself skilfully and was able to travel home unmolested. Overloaded with military problems, Antony did not want to lose his important friend and ally.

swell

literature

See also

Remarks

  1. ↑ Josephus: Jewish Antiquities 14, 387.
  2. ↑ W. Otto: RE Suppl. Volume 2, Col. 25 f .; similar to Abraham Schalit: King Herod. The man and his work. Verlag Walter De Gruyter, Berlin and New York, 2001, pp. 81–88.
  3. ↑ Josephus: Jüdische Antiquities 14, 381-386.
  4. ↑ Josephus: Jewish Antiquities 15, 22.
  5. ↑ Josephus: Jewish Antiquities 15, 23-30.
  6. ↑ W. Otto: RE Suppl. Volume 2, Col. 37.
  7. ↑ C. Schäfer: Cleopatra , p. 169.
  8. ↑ Josephus: Jüdische Antiquities 15, 31-41; on this W. Otto, Sp. 38f.
  9. ↑ Josephus: Jüdische Antiquities 15, 42-48.
  10. ↑ Josephus: Jüdische Antiquities 15, 49-53.
  11. ↑ Josephus: Jüdische Antiquities 15, 53-56; Jewish War 1, 437.
  12. ↑ Josephus: Jüdische Antiquities 15, 57-65; 15, 74-79; Jewish War 1, 441.
personal data
SURNAME Aristobulus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Aristobulus III .; Aristobulus III .; Aristobulus Jonathan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hasmonean prince, Jewish high priest
DATE OF BIRTH around 53 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 36 BC Chr.
Place of death Jericho